Three on a Match?
The Godfadda Workout
The Syringa Tree

By John Strasberg

MetamorphosesStrangely, these three plays have something in common. They are all recounted in the oldest form of theater, storytelling. The actors represent the character. There is an obvious distance between actor and character, so that you always know the actor is acting; rather than the actors submerging themselves in the character. There seems to be a lot of that theater around now.

The first two plays are fundamentally one person plays. Developed primarily by the actors themselves, who have also written them. It is their work as an actor that is at the heart of the evening.

The Godfadda Workout is titled as “a parody in 12 rounds². It is born out of the star and writer Seth Isler’s obsession with the film. Certainly, his energy attests to the fact that he can be obsessed. We see him act out almost all the parts we remember. He is constantly, and pleasantly, surprising us, with his physicality, and his inventiveness; which is helped by the director/producer, Susan Jane Sullivan. The setting is low budget, but inventive. In fact, this one-man show really has six actors. The other five move furniture, make mimed comments about what is going on, and participate in making some of the tricks that pop up during the evening, work. The evening is an hour and a half of nonstop imagination and theater games. It is short, light, and entertaining.

Watching The Goddfadda Workout reminded me of The Syringa Tree, which was a wonderful, poignant, funny evening I saw last summer, with the actress who wrote and acted it, Pamela Gien. Ms Gien, like Mr. Isler, played many characters. However, her characters come from her memories of growing up in South Africa. What she recounts in a wonderful, funny and poignant way, is often very moving; not only because of how she recounts it, moving back and forth between characters conversing with one another, but because of how simply moving and real she is. She reveals a world that most of us know little about, through the eyes of herself as a child. As she grows up, comes to the United States, and becomes the actress who becomes aware of her life, the story creates the play. It is enjoyable theater; real, funny, poignant, and it has something to say about life. Larry Moss directs it, and magically evolves the form and structure of the evening. I’m glad that the producers found a way to get this on, and keep it running. Kate Blumberg now in the role at Playhouse 91, is not Ms Gien, as you might expect as the life experiences are not hers, but she handles the story with equal ease.
Both Seth Isler and Pamela Gien developed their evenings in the classes and theater companies that abound in Los Angeles. Serious actors, rich and poor, are starving from a lack of self-expression in the City of Angels, and flock to these places, because they need to nourish that part of themselves. This is the foundation of any real actor’s life and work: part of them starves in the type of one-dimensional work they are hopefully, sometimes, very well paid for. Even if they are working, the work is often boring. It’s pleasurable to see these two doing what they always wanted to do, act in unique roles.

Metamorphoses is written and developed by Mary Zimmerman, the director. As with the above plays, it is her work that dominates the evening. Metamorphoses is a more ambitious evening, largely because of its subject. It is based on Ovid’s work of the same name. It recounts Greek myths in a simple way, modern and accessible to all audiences. The text and direction by Ms Zimmerman is clean, and well done. The actors all play a variety of roles. Most of them are part of the Chicago company that developed the piece with Ms Zimmerman. Like other Windy City companies; Second City, the improvisational group, and Steppenwolf, this production toured the country for some time before coming to New York.

The play takes place within a beautiful, modern, slightly surrealistic set, designed by Daniel Ostling. It is dominated by a large pool that the Gods love to splash around in. The lighting, by T.J. Gerckens, is equally clean and modern, complimenting the set; as do the costumes, designed by Mara Blumenfeld. The resulting visual effect is easy and pleasing to look at; down to the towels placed on the seats for the audience in the first row. They, and the rest of us, enter the theater with a warning to the first few rows that ‘Gods like to splash’. If I went back to see it again, I might want to wear a bathing suit, and bring a water gun. Because, our Gods are all too human.

My only criticism of the evening is that I felt the acting, apart from the work of Doug Hara, who is very good in all the roles he plays, and galvanizes attention on himself when he is on stage, does not come up to the rest of the play’s production levels. These are all professional actors, many of them coming out of major University theater programs; and all have professional experience. However, I didn’t like how they declaimed the text. The stories they are telling are full of passion and life that form a part of the basis of western civilization, yet, they speak in a tone that is impersonal and distanced. Several seem as though they have never had any voice training. There are people in the profession who will argue that this is OK in storytelling; that an actor can sound cold and uninvolved. I do not agree. Just go see the other two evenings mentioned, and see the difference in the actor’s skill, and their capacity to become involved with their characters, even while storytelling. It proves that one can tell a story, and be involved. It just requires a choice, and the skill to carry it out. Fortunately this doesn’t take away from the pleasurable evening that Ms. Zimmerman has created.

The Godfadda Workout, American Place CONCEIVED & PERFORMED: Seth Isler DIRECTOR: Susan Jane Sullivan TICKETS $50 $20 student rush Tele-charge 212-239-6200
The Syringa Tree, Playhouse 91 CAST: Kate Blumberg AUTHOR: Pamela Gien DIRECTOR: Larry Moss SETS: Kenneth Foy LIGHTING: Jason Kantrowitz COSTUMES: Bobby Pearce SOUND: Tony Suraci TICKETS $49.50 TicketMaster 212-307-4100